The Small Screen, Redefined

The New York Times writes about the market for portable video devices, which up until now has been disappointing. As Ross Rubin at NPD Group noted, sales are only "in the thousands of units per month." Rubin thought sales were low "because the devices are relatively expensive, and besides home movies, it is often difficult to find video to watch on them."

Nitin Gupta at Yankee Group remarked that "the ultimate appeal of portable media players that emphasize video is not yet clear." He said, "These devices do a lot, but the message gets muddled. What are they for? The big challenge is to create a reason to watch video on a tiny screen."

The article looks at some of the efforts and products by vendors trying to jumpstart the market.